Parents caught daughter sneaking in before shootings

Boyfriend told police he picked up weapons and went back to her house

MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press

Published 6:30 am, Thursday, November 24, 2005

LANCASTER, PA. - After they spent the night together at his house, David Ludwig drove his 14-year-old girlfriend home about 5:30 a.m. and then waited for the customary text-message saying she had made it into her room safely.

But he didn't hear from her right away, and several of his text messages went unanswered. When he finally reached Kara Borden a short time later, she told him that she had been caught and her parents wanted to see him.

Ludwig stuffed a Glock pistol in his waistband, grabbed some other weapons and headed for the Borden home, according to an account Ludwig, 18, gave to police of the events leading to the killing of Kara's parents Nov. 13.

By the time police caught up with Ludwig in Indiana, Kara was in the passenger seat and, he said, headed west with him to start a new life together.

Ludwig is in jail in Pennsylvania on homicide charges in the slaying of Michael and Cathryn Borden at their home in Lititz. The account of the crime was contained in court papers filed by prosecutors Tuesday.

Return to the house

Ludwig said he grew worried after he dropped off his girlfriend before daybreak on that Sunday. He repeatedly tried to contact Kara but did not hear back from her until she answered her cell phone about 6:15 a.m. The news wasn't good.

Kara "said she was caught and her parents were there," according to the court filing, which seeks to preserve cellular telephone and Internet records of the two. "According to Ludwig, (Kara) said she needed him to come over to her house."

It was about 7 a.m. when Ludwig showed up at the Borden family home, a two-story brick house on a cul-de-sac in a well-to-do suburban neighborhood. He had two guns and a hunting knife, police said.

There was a 30- to 45-minute talk with Kara's father. Police said it was an argument that ended with Michael Borden telling Ludwig he could no longer see Kara.

An avid hunter

Ludwig told police that he then decided to kill his girlfriend's parents.

First, he shot Michael Borden in the back, prosecutors said.

"I did not aim. I have a lot of shooting experience, and I usually hit what I shoot at," Ludwig, an avid hunter, told investigators.

He then went into the living room and shot Cathryn Borden from six feet away as she was getting out of her chair, according to the court papers.

He told police that he left the house when he couldn't find his girlfriend and started to drive away, but then turned back — "even if it meant that he would be caught." Kara came running after him and got in the car, he told authorities.

The case was considered a kidnapping until authorities concluded the girl went willingly. Her lawyer said Tuesday that she did not know Ludwig might shoot her parents and had no role in planning the killings.

The new filing seems to confirm that account, with Ludwig telling police Kara never asked him to kill her parents.